Russia Is Waging War On American Burger Chains

A woman speaks on her
phone inside a McDonald's restaurant displaying an announcement
on the door informing clients that the restaurant is out of
service, in the Crimean city of Simferopol April 4,
2014.Reuters

Russia is waging a battle against two of the United States'
biggest burger chains, according to
the Los
Angeles Times' Carol J. Williams.

McDonald's is being sued by Russian food regulators for allegedly
lying about the nutritional content of its burgers and Wendy's is
separately shutting down all operations in the country.

"The undeclared war on the American cheeseburger follows a
two-year pattern of proxy swipes against U.S. businesses and
interests in Russia," Williams writes.

Williams speculates that growing political tensions are to blame
for the crackdown.

In a recent lawsuit, Russia's consumer safety regulator claims
that investigators found harmful bacteria E.coli in some of
McDonald's wraps and salads, according to the
Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit also accuses McDonald's,
which has 400 restaurants in Russia, of misrepresenting the
nutritional content of its cheeseburgers, Filet-o-Fish
sandwiches, chicken burgers, milk shakes and ice cream.

Separately, regulators are
launching a new probe into whether
McDonald's cheese contains antibiotics.

In a statement on its
Russian website, McDonald's said it wasn't aware of the lawsuit and claimed
the nutritional value of its food is calculated according to the
Russian government's standards. The company also noted
that 80% of its
cheese comes from a supplier in Moscow and the rest is imported
from Germany and the Czech Republic.

Following news of the new probe
against McDonald's, Wendy's separately announced that it would be
abandoning its operations in Russia due to a disagreement with
the local operator of the restaurants.

Wendy's had plans to build 180
restaurants in Russia over the course of a decade with local
operator Wenrus Restaurant Group. But three years after
entering the country, the burger chain had only built eight.
Those outlets will now be closed, Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini
told Business Insider.

"Unfortunately, the new
leadership of Wenrus has not expressed interest in growing
Wendy’s business in Russia, nor shown they have the resources to
successfully operate the existing restaurants on a long-term
basis," Bertini said in an e-mailed statement. "As a result, we
have decided not to continue business in Russia at this
time."

He stressed that the decision
is "totally unrelated to the current political situation in
Russia."

"We deeply appreciate the
support of our Russian customers and the restaurant teams over
the last three years, and hope to return to Russia in the
future," Bertini added.